Chapter 2168: Costs And Benefits

Tian Dou had paid too high a price to obtain his current strength. He had betrayed humanity in order to save his Specter clan, and later, he had turned to Jue Yi for protection. Finally, he had returned to the Aeternals. The cost had been so steep, and yet everything had been lost because of a single person. Just how was this even possible?

Lu Yin would not explain his die to Tian Dou. "The entire reason why you saved Silver when you found him was because he’s a bone grafter. Your Specter clan has passed down the God of Death’s left arm for countless years, but nothing could be done with it. You saw it, and yet it was left to rot. You tortured Silver with your research in order to learn how to incorporate the abilities of a bone grafter into yourself so that you could fuse the God of Death’s arm into your own body. You made Silver’s very existence miserable, but you didn’t fare much better.”

"Just as you tore all of his flesh away, you did the same to yourself in order to become a bone grafter. Honestly, I find your determination impressive."

Tian Dou clenched his fists. His gaze would not steady itself as he stared at Lu Yin. "And yet I still failed. I might have incorporated the God of Death’s arm into my body, but I need to be a Semi-Progenitor to access its full power. However, the arm also means that my tribulation to become a Semi-Progenitor will be so powerful that I have no hope of survival. The tribulation can sense the God of Death’s presence in my body, which means that my next tribulation won’t be on the Semi-Progenitor level as it should be, but rather a Progenitor level stellular tribulation."

Lu Yin nodded. From Tian Dou's memories, Lu Yin had learned that the man had attempted to break through and become a Semi-Progenitor a bit more than thirty years ago, which was when Lu Yin had still been a student in the Astral Combat Academy. The presence of the God of Death’s left arm had made Tian Dou’s tribulation too powerful and massive, which had left him with no choice but to give up. Otherwise, he would have already become a Semi-Progenitor.

Tian Dou was much older than Lu Yin’s senior brother, and he was almost as old as Elder Gong and the other Semi-Progenitors. However, Tian Dou had held back from attempting to break through to the Semi-Progenitor realm because of his desire to transplant the God of Death’s arm into his own body. Unfortunately, that same arm removed Tian Dou all hope of surviving his stellular tribulation and becoming a Semi-Progenitor.

His history was both revolting and pathetic .

He had worked too hard and done too much to be able to use the God of Death’s left arm. It was far, far more than what most people could even imagine. At least, Lu Yin knew that he would not have paid such a steep price. Despite it all, the results spoke for themselves.

This was also why Tian Dou wanted to receive Aeternus’s True God’s divine energy, as there was no hope for him to advance any further with death energy.

The fact of the matter was that stellular energy came from the Origin Progenitor. So, if Tian Dou wanted to escape his impending stellular tribulation, his only option was to use the divine energy of Aeternus’s True God. Then, Tian Dou would be able to become a Semi-Progenitor, and after that, with the God of Death’s arm as part of his body, there was no way to truly predict just what realm his cultivation would reach.

"You’re very smart and able to see far ahead. If you wanted to, you could have become a Semi-Progenitor long ago, but your foresight actually ended up forcing you to rely on the power of the Aeternals. Did you even think about your choice? If you really cultivate the power of Aeternus, you’ll become a monster and cease to be human," Lu Yin asked in an indifferent tone.

Tian Dou’s voice was bitter as he replied, "All things become meaningless if you fail to become a Progenitor. You’ve never had to experience the hatred and persecution of countless people! You can’t comprehend the idea of sacrificing absolutely everything in the pursuit of power."

"My Lu family was banished by the four ruling powers. From the moment I first started cultivating, I was regarded as an enemy of the Daynight clan. I was completely outclassed and overwhelmed. I completely understand," Lu Yin answered.

Tian Dou and Lu Yin just stared at each other for a moment. "What's the point in saying such things now? I’ve already learned your greatest secret, so you’ll definitely kill me."

A smile tugged at Lu Yin’s lips. "That isn’t my greatest secret."

Tian Dou was startled, but then he started to laugh. "As expected of this era’s legend! Alliance Leader Lu, more and more, I find myself believing that you really will become the next God of Death. You will come to master both the power of your Lu family and the God of Death. It’s possible that you will be able to lead humanity into an era of greatness, but unfortunately, I won’t be able to see that future."

Lu Yin had long since grown accustomed to there being winners and losers in conflicts. How many people had died during his quest to unite the Outerverse and the Innerverse? How many had surrendered to him? As his strength improved, more and more of the powerhouses that he had once looked up to had been trampled upon as he rose higher.

How long had it been since Lu Yin had first met Tian Dou?

The door to the cell closed with a bang as Lu Yin left. There was no trace of Tian Dou at all.

The man had cooperated with Aeternus and betrayed humanity, and for that, he had to die. Lu Yin had another image on his Champions’ Stage.

At one point in time, LuYin had made the mistake of trying to anoint a Semi-Progenitor as a champion as a mere one-tribulation Envoy, which had caused him to suffer a severe backlash. At that time, let alone a Semi-Progenitor, even an expert with a power level of a million would likely have been too much for Lu Yin to handle. However, things had changed since then. His strength had transformed since then, and there was no issue in anointing Tian Dou as a champion. In fact, Lu Yin wanted to try anointing an even more powerful champion.

As he emerged from the prison, Lu Yin met Silver. For once, there was no smile on the man’s face, and he was standing there calmly, waiting for Lu Yin.

As soon as Lu Yin appeared, Silver turned around to face Lu Yin with a smile. "Congratulations, Captain!"

"Congratulations? He knew nothing about where Blackless God might be. We’ve gained nothing," Lu Yin retorted.

Silver continued to smile. "Might I have my finger back, Captain?"

Lu Yin turned to stare at Silver. "You want it back?"

"That depends on whether or not you’re willing to return it to me, Captain," Silver replied.

Lu Yin looked past Yin and stared out into space. "Just one thing: tell me why. Right, I can let you have Tian Dou's right arm and both of his legs."

Silver’s eyes widened slightly, and he felt a chill that seeped to the depths of his bones. "That's exactly why I offered you my congratulations—you’ve picked up the God of Death’s left arm."

Lu Yin laughed. The only people from the entire Specter clan who had been aware of the God of Death’s arm’s existence had been Tian Dou and Silver. In fact, not only had the two of them known about it, but they had both even used the arm.

Tian Dou researched bone grafters in an attempt to use their ability to transplant the God of Death’s left arm into his own body, but before attempting it on himself, he had tested it on Silver. The finger that Silver had snapped off had contained a single bone from the God of Death.

Destina had managed to pinpoint Tian Dou’s location because Silver had supplied her with a bone from the God of Death. That was the medium that had been used to perform the divination to locate the God of Death’s arm that Tian Dou had taken.

After understanding everything that had happened, Lu Yin felt a burst of a cold sweat for Destina. If she had performed a divination related to the full body of the God of Death instead of just his arm, or if she had performed the divination on the severed finger instead of Tian Dou himself and merely used the connection provided by the finger, then she would have suffered terribly. The God of Death had been a figure who had surpassed the vast majority of Progenitors.

Lu Yin had no idea if Destina had actually performed the divination directly on the pieces of the God of Death’s body. It was possible, but not likely.

The moment Lu Yin learned that Tian Dou possessed the God of Death’s left arm, many details suddenly made sense. For example, there was the fact that Silver had developed his own visualization method based off of the God of Death, which had absolutely shocked Jue Yi. However, Silver had succeeded because of the finger bone that he had absorbed from the God of Death.

"You kept this matter a secret from me for a long time. If not for learning that Tian Dou was working with Blackless God, then just how long were you planning to keep the God of Death’s arm a secret from me?" Lu Yin demanded.

Silver asked, "Did you need to know about it, Captain?"

Lu Yin’s eyes flashed.

Silver’s smile grew as he said, "Captain, for you, the God of Death’s arm is nothing more than a piece of a corpse. You’ve even received the God of Death’s full inheritance, so would you have any use for the God of Death’s arm even if I gave it to you? Or were you thinking of following in Tian Dou’s footsteps and trying to gain the abilities of a bone grafter for yourself and incorporating the arm into your own body?"

There was a flash of movement, and suddenly, Lu Yin was squeezing Silver’s throat. Silver’s body was entirely floating off the ground.

This was not the first time that Lu Yin had done this to Silver.

The smile on Silver’s face froze in place. He was not able to move or breath, as a powerful suppression had overwhelmed his entire body and suppressed him. He felt the need to cough up blood, but was unable to do so. All he could do was force it back down into his stomach.

"I’ll warn you this once: you don’t get to decide what’s useful for me or not. You have no right to make decisions for me. This is your last chance. Keep something from me again, and I’ll let you join Tian Dou," Lu Yin said in a cold tone. He then casually tossed Silver to the side, but the deceptive force of the throw slammed Silver into the ground, injuring him to the point where he spat out blood. He looked miserable.

"You can have Tian Dou's body." Lu Yin said one last thing before leaving.

Silver remained laying on the ground where he had fallen. Even though he looked like he was in a terrible condition, his smile stayed on his face, and it even grew larger after he heard Lu Yin’s last words.

From Tian Dou's memories, not only had Lu Yin learned of the existence of the God of Death’s left arm, but he had also learned of the Specter clan’s hidden stashes of resources. According to what Lu Yin had learned, the Specter clan still had almost 100 billion star essence hidden away. The clan might not use stellular energy or star energy to cultivate, but there were many uses for such resources, and so, the clan had accumulated a great deal of wealth. On top of that, Jue Yi had not been informed about any of these resources, as the stashes had been hidden long, long ago.

Jue Yi had only been released from the sourcebox array twenty years ago, which meant that the Undying Heavenly Gate had not existed for very long. The Semi-Progenitor did not have much use for star essence, or else he definitely would have found a way to unearth all of the Specter clan’s resources.

At this moment, all of this worked out in Lu Yin’s favor.

While the clan still had about 100 billion star essence in reserve, when they declared their loyalty to Lu Yin, Tian Dou had given away 50 billion star essence as a gift to Lu Yin, which proved that he had not been thinking about betraying Lu Yin at that time. However, nothing in the universe was truly permanent, and Tian Dou was not a loyal individual.

The Specter clan had hidden a stash in their own hidden world, so Lu Yin would only be able to recover the money by going to the Neovese. However, that trip was already planned, as he needed to join up with Qing Ping so that they could make their way to the Perennial World together.

It was at this time that word of the God of Death’s left arm started to spread, and Lu Yin was actually the source of those rumors. He spread this information so that people would think that he was in extended seclusion.

The God of Death was a mythical powerhouse, and even just twenty years ago, practically no one had believed that such a person had ever existed. However, people from the Heavens Sect era had been released from a sourcebox, verifying many myths and legends. Even then, the God of Death remained a lofty concept, especially for anyone who cultivated with death energy.

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Lu Yin was the true heir of the God of Death, and he had obtained the God of Death’s left arm. It was only natural that he would immediately go into seclusion.

In the Astral Beast Domain, Jue Yi received word of these developments, and they completely shocked him. "The God of Death’s left arm?"

"Yes. Many people have learned that six Semi-Progenitors made a trip into the Astral Wilderness to capture Tian Dou, but all of them almost died because Tian Dou used the God of Death’s left arm. If not for the fact that his cultivation was too lacking to fully utilize it, he would have killed them all. At this moment, the arm is in Lu Yin’s possession."

Jue Yi was exchanging messages with another individual from the Heavens Sect era who also cultivated with death energy. This man was far more loyal to Jue Yi than anyone from the Specter clan, and Jue Yi also trusted the man more.

An ugly expression covered the Semi-Progenitor’s face. "That’s impossible! How could the God of Death have lost his arm?"

"Gatemaster, all of this information has been confirmed. Tian Dou’s limbs were all removed while he was imprisoned, and Semi-Progenitor Kui Luo has not been quiet about anything that happened. The veracity of this information is unquestionable."

"Where is the Dao Chosen?"

"Dao Chosen Lu has entered seclusion."

Jue Yi took a deep breath. If Lu Yin really had acquired the God of Death’s left arm, then it was only natural for him to go into seclusion.

However, this meant that Tian Dou had actually been constantly lying to Jue Yi. The Specter clan’s patriarch had always been in possession of the God of Death’s arm, and yet Jue Yi had never known a thing. If he had been informed of such, he would have been able to take yet another step towards becoming a true Progenitor. Jue Yi felt a matchless, eternal hatred for Tian Dou. In fact, it was even quite unfortunate that Tian Dou was already dead, as otherwise Jue Yi would have ensured that the man spent hundreds of millions of years in suffering.

"Is Lu Yin in seclusion?" Hen Xin asked. He and Jue Yi were both still in the Astral Beast Domain, keeping an eye on the Extreme Path.

Jue nodded. "If that truly is the God of Death’s left arm, then there’s no question that Lu Yin will be in seclusion to study it. Death energy was created by the God of Death, and the benefits of studying his arm are immeasurable."